(AP) — Have you dreamed of creating a calm and cozy spot at home to relax and recharge, but don’t think you can spare the space?

You don’t need a “man cave,” “she shed” or even a whole room to retreat to. Just one corner will do.

One corner, warm lighting, a cozy chair and some plants, says interior and plant stylist Hilton Carter, who specializes in “nature nooks” — tiny wellness sanctuaries that calm the mind, body and spirit.

Carter has hosted plant-forward specials for HBO and PBS, launched a plant and accessories line with Target and authored six books (his most recent is “Unfurled: Designing a Living Home.”)

Nature nooks, he says, improve a home emotionally as well as aesthetically.

Carter, 48, found himself leaning toward plants a decade ago. “I was feeling overwhelmed by the hustle and grind working as a freelance filmmaker in Los Angeles when a project took me to Glen Mills, Pennsylvania,” he said.

There, he popped into a garden-themed cafe.

“I was all knotted up, and I walked in there and felt a change. It felt like a vacation,” he said.

Not long after, Carter moved to New Orleans and bought a fiddle-leaf fig tree he named Frank. “I was at a crossroads in life, which all of us face, and I faced it with this plant,” he said, adding that he made a vow to love it and keep it alive. “Everything I’ve accomplished since then was all due to that moment.”

A nature nook doesn’t need a lot of plants

Today, Carter, who lives in Baltimore with his wife and two children, has roughly 150 plants at home and another 200 or so in his studio, including Frank, now 14 feet tall. But creating a nature nook with as few as five plants can reap emotional benefits, he said.