how i made my table

LO1

this is the reference image i am going to take inspiration from to create  Victorian styled unit.  the reason i have chosen not to copy this unit exactly is because i want my unit to be a little more miss matched as if its been re varnished many times and been repaired with different types of wood.

i started off with a simple box which i connected four times from top to bottom, these connects would make up the tops and bottoms of the draws which i will extrude inwards. (these draws could hold items for the player to find)
the next step was to add two connects to the length and two to the width, these connects could produce four squares where the connects over lapped, these squares are located in the four corners of the model and i will use them to extrude out the legs of the unit.
i selected the four corner squares on the bottom of the model and extruded them down around 1/7th of the models overall height.
to save on polys i removed the two central polys on the side of the model and then wielded there verts together to turn ten polys into four polys and four tris.

i selected the two front polys where the draws are going to be and then extruded them inwards to create the slots of the top draw and the bottom storage compartment.

to create the top of the unit first i selected all the polygons on the top of the model end extruded upwards, from here i selected all of the polygons on the outside of the extrusion i have just done and then extruded them out by local normal.
to save on polys i deleted all of the faces on the top of the model and then used the select by edge to select all the edges around the hole and then caped it, i selected this new face and inset it to a central point and then wielded the verts together, this created at ring of tries.
to finish off i selected the outside edges of this unit top one at a time and used the scale tool to bring the verts all into line.

before i added the draw and cupboard doors i selected the two inner faces on the side of the model and extruded them inwards i then used the scale tool to bring the faces inwards slightly, these faces will be given a plank texture just like in the reference image.
draws: the draw is literally a rectangular cube with the top inset and then extruded down inside its self, i deleted the back and under side face as these would not been seen by the player.
the cupboard door: the door is also a just a rectangle with a nice texture on it, there is no point adding lots of geometry to such a simple part, i only made one door as after i unwrap it i can just copy and paste to make the second door.
handles: the handle is a cylinder that has a few subsections down its length, using the vertexs and the scale tool i reshaped the cylinder into a door nob and to get rid of any engons i wielded the top of the handle with the player can see and deleted the face at the other end as the player will never see it.

this is a test render of my model to see what it is looking like at this stage, the light i am using here is a MR area omni light with is equal to a room ceiling light in terms of light spread. 

the uv map:

LO2
these are the maps i created for this model.
diffuse map

normal map

spec map

LO3

for the lighting i have chosen to use a MR area spot, i have changed the hotspot beam and fall off field to give the light a more realistic softer feel with the most dense light in the middle with a gradual fall off.
the shadow for this model is a shadow map which gives the shadows a softer edge and react more naturally to the light however they dont work with translucent materials.
the background and floor are just textured to make the model look even more realistic, i added a skirting board to add more effect.

Final render

i have imported my model into udk: