The sun is very low on this one so it’s normal to look dark, use another one and you should be fine.
EDIT: Oh, you don’t need 2048 for lighting, 1024 is fine or even big. I just asked for the resolution just in case you were using something super small, like a mirrorball hdri.
yea, i might go back to 1024, 2048 takes around 2 hours and 30 minutes to render. Just changing the hdri does change the lighting significantly though, that’s really cool. Kindof cool to see how lighting and drastically changes a scenes mood. I used one of the hdri files you provided
Is there a light behind the camera or a window? You should pick a warmer HDRI, lighting is kind of blue-ish now. And I’m quite sure that you can increase the hdri’s intensity, apart from the camera’s but I can’t test it right now, my laptop can’t run heavy software like maya. A good idea would be to make a copy of your scene and apply a standard gray lambert material on everything. Hide the glass and test lighting there. This way your rendertimes will get reduced and it will be easier to see what’s going on. Check some making ofs here: http://www.evermotion.org/tutorials/category/3ds-max/14/0/ they use vray for everything.
edit: From what I’ve seen on the internet, there is an intensity multiplier for the dome light, just increase that to make the room brighter only with the HDRI. You don’t need portal lights for the scene as the window is very big.
No, the only lighting source is the hdri, there’s no other lights in the scene. Using different hdri changes the lighting in a big way. Yea there’s multiple ways to increase the intensity. through the vray camera, the actual attributes of the dome light, render settings, etc…I’ll have to worry about the lighting once I’m done with the scene
You should have said that, I thought you were working on lighting, hence the comments on it 
Yeah, I’ll have to worry about that after I’m done with the exterior. Someone also told me to make it a rainy scene. So many ideas from various people. I’ll try to add volumetric lighting, vignettes, and the right hdri lighting sometime this week. Once again, thanks for pointing me in the right direction
Why rainy? It’s a kids room make it happy and well lit with sun coming from the big window
Sorry, was busy going to interviews this week. Here’s my current progress on the scene. I’ve been experimenting with vray fog, I think I overdid it though. trying to create a stuffing/cotton shader but it’s not working out the way that I’d like. Also the feathers aren’t looking right also. I’ll keep working on it.
Good luck with the interviews! 
I had some spare time so I photoshopped your image, instead of writting my comments here.
My comments on your image:
And an edited version:
If this is a problem I will remove the images just tell me.
Good points you have there. I’ll reduce the illumination of the tv light and remove the dirt from the side of the chair. I’ll also try to work on the dust in the room a bit more. Haven’t used vray fog, so it’s interesting to experiment. As for the white thing on the floor, that’s a stuffed animal.
I probably won’t go as bright as your photoshopped image, mainly because you can barely see the background image, it’s too saturated with light. I’ll have to find a balance without sacrificing the background. It’s almost close to the white background I originally had, which isn’t a good thing. Anyway, thanks for the feedback…oh and I’ll also add feathers, that’s the main thing I’ve been working on besides the stuffing/cotton for the bed/pillows
You don’t have to make the background that light, just the interior. But if you look at most interior photographs you can’t see the background, it’s almost white. And that’s why photographers either use extra lights or utilize hdr when the background is important.
While taking a break from the bedroom scene a couple of friends and I decided to take on a project. Here’s a personal project (undisclosed) I’m working on with 2 of my friends. I’m modeling the gamer, but I’m not sure about the face topology, since I plan on rigging him.
I want the mouth and brows to deform right when I rig it and I’m wondering If I’m going in the right direction
I’m going for a similar look as this one (excluding the shape of the face).
the bed stuffing and feathers just weren’t rendering well, so I think I’m done with this project for now. Time to move on to the next thing.
This is without the TV glow.
Not what I wanted, but I noticed it was already 7-8 weeks since I started this project and continuing this project just gave me a headache. Getting the bed/pillow stuffing to not only look right but render right drove me up the wall. The feathers also didn’t render well. The feathers just blended into the background too much to the point where you could barely see them. Maybe it’s my lack of experience, but I’ll try to get better in time. 2 months ago I was still in school and now the training wheels are off. lol