When you talk about a "hearth room", is this room rustic or of a colonial style of decorating? I have this situation with a "keeping room" off the kitchen. This is a term often referred to in homes before 1850. My house is a colonial reproduction and I have a reproduction dining table in this room made to look like an old Pennsylvania work table. I plan to redo my kitchen and there will be a wooden topped island about 7 feet from this table. I plan to stain the island top to match my wooden floor in my kitchen--it's a medium brown. I think this will make the island less obtrusive. Anyway, the furniture in the keeping room is a bit eclectic with different finishes so the wooden counter of the island will be just more of the same. I would suggest that you just keep contrast to a minimum and things should work out. By the way, for those of you who respond to this question also, I'd like to ask if something has changed with the forums. I've used this site for a couple of years and for some reason the simplest of searches come up as "no matches found". Have I missed something?