I've gone through several different ways to display my plants. I think I finally have it all figured out in version 4.0, thanks to the discontinued Baker's Racks I got at a local store.
This is the first version, with the plants on the teak cabinet. Unfortunately, the cats would walk all over the cabinet and try to flop down, since it was in front of the windows and filled with sun. And we know how cats like warm, sunny spots.
This is the third version. The teak cabinet is now in front of the window, with a zebra patterned towel on top and thick foam rubber underneath to protect the cabinet. I'm now using a small metal folding table, with an end table on top for the Christmas cactus. I'm still not happy with this version, but it was the best I could do at the time. Boris is snoozing away in the Ikea chair.
The rubber plant is on top of another small end table. Note the stunning flowers on the Chinese Hibiscus. They only last a day and they sure are beautiful to see.
The African Violets are on the end of the built in bookcase, while the other plants are wadded together on the metal table. All of this made it very hard to water them, so they weren't getting the greatest of care for a while.
I've shuffled the plants around. This is actually the second version, before I put the end table on top of the metal table. During this version the cats (especially Mandy) kept batting away at the Christmas cacti and knocking off leaves. I wasn't very happy about this, to put it mildly.
And here we are with the final version. I took the glass shelf off the rack on the right, so the rubber plant could fit. Plus, it keeps the cats from walking across the racks (for now at least). Now I can water them much more easily, they aren't getting played with by the cats and they're getting lots of sunshine.
The African Violets were moved to the wood burning stove in the living room. They seem to be doing pretty good in this location. The ceramic cat I got in England when I was there a few years back.
Update: There is a 5th version of the plants (photos to come later on). Many of the plants shown here have died as they got too much sun and/or the cats knocked them over to the floor too many times. I've never lived in a place with this much sun during the day, so it's been quite an adjustment figuring out which plants will work and which ones won't. Unfortunately I've wadded the house so full of other stuff, the living room is really the only room where I can put my plants. I would love to hang plants from the ceiling, but Dirk is afraid the ceiling slats won't hold the containers up as they'll be too heavy. I love having plants and I'm a bit frustrated that I can't have more. I guess I could get rid of some furniture and stuff like that, but that's quite hard to do as well. A Catch-22, me thinks!
Part of version 5.0. These are two beautiful Christmas Cactus that a long time friend gave to me in 2007. It took them a while to adjust to their new environment and it didn't help that Mandy knocked one of them to the floor and quite a bit broke off. Those bits were repotted and are doing just fine. They even bloomed this year, as did the plant that got knocked to the floor (bright pink flowers). The one with the orange flowers didn't get knocked over and bloomed last year as well. Thanks Liz for the wonderful plants!
The Cats