Cute cafe but what's missing?

I do think it looks fine, just a bit simplistic and empty. These kinds of isometric diorama-like scenes tend to be more cluthered, to the point of being “useless”. See this one for example : Green Isometric Room . It’s somewhere between “kinda usable and realistic” and “cartoony and unwalkable”. It’s tempting to adjust everything to scale, but the scale of the individual objects usually never match, either between themselves and to their real world references.

Some suggestions:

  • try changing the different wood objects to different shades of brown, to give more contrast to the scene. They seem a bit too similar. This will make the scene more interesting (note how you did that for the beams on the top, and how they pop out more);
  • speaking of those beams, they seem a bit too shiny and reflective. More roughness might help there;
  • try differents colors for the walls, ones that would give some contrast for all the wood;
  • also, maybe make the background darker, or a gradient, to make the scene “pop” a bit more (example: Isometric Russian Kitchen and Cozy Room Diorama );
  • play with the thickness and roundness of the wood objects. The chair and table seem fine, but the display could have thicker woodwork. Same for the blackboard (and maybe the floor boards). The goal is to keep the overall “thickness and roundness” in a similar scale between objects;
  • for the display, you can try making it smaller, with 3 rows instead of four. Try putting some metal trays bellow the pastries, at least in the lower part;
  • the blackboard can be smaller, maybe 2/3 of the width and a little shorter on height. I feel it’s tempting to have lots of info there, and for it to be readable, but a smaller size might work better and give you some space on that wall;
  • put more things, like plants on the window and on vases in the corner, old lamps on the walls, maybe some posters or paintings, a sink and a coffee machine behind the display, chalk and and eraser for the board, etc. Look at similar scenes and real cake/coffee shops to get some ideas;
  • one thing that might make easier to add more things is to get rid of the door. It will also allow you to rearrange all the other objects more easily. The usual tricky is to “pretend” the door is in one of the walls that do not appear in the scene;
  • the wood thing above the door seems to be a bit lost in the scene. If it is a shelf, put things on it (trophies? photo frames? a cat bed? flower pots? a cute plushie?)

Sorry for the long list. Please, keep in mind that these are suggestions, and that your scene is yours to make however you want. Don’t change what you think you want to keep, make it your own art. Also, don’t keep changing one scene forever. Sometimes it’s better to call it “finished” and try a new one, from scratch. It’s also useful to compare your progress.