I think lighting is the key. Are you using Vue's ambient generated light or are you creating your own?

The reason I ask is that you can get much better results by creating your own ambient light.

In addition, indoor scenes are difficult to illuminate. There's a lighting tutorial in the backroom that discusses indoor lighting. Unfortunately, the tutorial is down right now (by nggalai).

I think I learned about lighting from the book 'digital lighting & rendering' by Jeremy Birn. If you want to learn about lighting that is an excellent place to start.

Charles