I remember in Poser5 having to bump up bounces to get "missing" elements in a mirror. Half a figure would just not be there... P7 seems to have solved this. Yep on the rest of your statement.

Now this is an "artistic" statement (mho) but I think if you cut your focal length in half,, you'll improve this bath render,, as good as it is. I'm guessing this(render) is close to 100... The back corner of the room seems to be turning upwards (flattening)

Now the other one makes me jealous...lol and that's rare. I like the idea of low grade reflection on leather. Even if it's rough cut surface..At least you pick up the correct light color doing this. You could even force a skin shader to pick up some "scatter" in the right circumstance,,, this room is up there on the renderer charts