Rendered in cycles at not enough samples. This is going to be my entry in to blendergurus realism contest. I still have a few models to add and things to change.
Any critiques are always appreciated although I will say that I am aware that my perspective/camera angle/placement of things is not correct compared to my reference. I plan on fixing that later but everything else is ready for your critiquing so fire away. Here is my reference image for comparison. http://i.imgur.com/CJXSuha.jpg
Maybe a tiny bit of fill light in the book case. Other than that, I can’t really complain as my skill level in blender is hardly past beginner.
My eyes sweep the scene, and the only thing that comes across as questionable is the base of the globe. It looks too smooth or too clean for brushed chrome or whatever metal that is. I can’t recall right now.
Great work though! Keep pushing!
Thank you for the feedback those are great points! I will try to dirty up the base a little. It is definitely a difficult material to get right.
it looks like the specular light of the is white, which makes it look like plastic. use the same color for the glossy reflection as the diffuse color.
overall it looks pretty realistic already :yes:
GREAT, VERY VERY CLOSE TO PHOTO REFERENCE…i WONDER , IS THAT REFERENCE PICTURE OF YOUR OWN COZ…EVERY TEXTURE IS SAME , ???
Wow, that is so realistic! 
Thanks guys! Nope its just a random photo I found on the internet. I used photoshop to match the colors on to my higher resolution textures. I’ll post an update when I get back home
Nice work,very realistic.
How did you UV unwrap the sphere?
Thanks man. The sphere was tough. There is a way to do it if you have a perfect texture (take a look at blendergurus earth tutorial files) but i just wanted to use my map so i just unwrapped half a sphere with the bottom and top vertex deleted as well and adjusted the uv’s a bunch. Then i duplicated the same thing for the other side of the sphere. (It only looks good from this angle) i wanted to post an update with this since ive been bumping this thread but im stuck at an airport all day.
Looks great! I like how to globe itself looks, and in my opinion the water vase looks awesome, but if you’re trying to copy the original image, there is a lot of paint built up around the edges of the table (this happens all the time in the real world when people paint their own furniture by hand, the paint clots in some areas). Maybe add some larger bump texture or add a paint map to it? Just a thought! All around great job though!
Yeah, the stock photo you linked is way more bright too. Like the table is right next to a window on a sunny day. Yours looks like it’s in the middle of the room or something by comparison.
Maybe the exposure on their camera was up?