Mission Impossible completed...
Well, I must be a glutton for punishment because I decided that little table I couldn't make work was boring anyway... why not try a big table instead! So after hours of wrangling with tutorials, photoshop, uv mapping, etc I produced a table. I was so excited until I realised I had barely even started the work as now I had to make multipliers and rbg maps and I must have redone them countless times and still my table side is not quite right, but if I ever have to look at that table again outside of a screenshot nothing good will happen!
Then table needed chairs and I had these annoying coloured lines all over the edges and I couldn't find any solution for hours... until finally I hunted down the culprit specular behind a maze of menus and options... argh!
Naturally I can see flaws in the design everywhere, but, I can also see how I could fix them with some better planning and with all that I learnt making them (I just can't do anymore with these ones and keep my sanity!). So I'm going to upload them flaws and all, just because I am kind of proud of them, even though I'll probably look back and cringe when I get better at this.
All in all I'm glad I took the time to do this, and I have barely scratched the surface so there is loads to keep me busy!