How to create a calming 'nature nook' with indoor plants. Advice from Hilton Carter

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How to create a calming 'nature nook' with indoor plants. Advice from Hilton Carter

2026-02-04 01:22 Last Updated At：01:30

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 café.

“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.”

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.

Before buying any plants, choose your site, Carter said.

“There is no minimum or maximum size” for a nature-nook corner, he says. The important thing is “how lush you decide to make it.”

Next, assess lighting. “If one side of the corner has a nice-size window and it gets southern-facing light for eight hours of the day, there are particular plants that you could go wild with that could thrive in that light,” Carter said.

“But let’s say you have a north-facing window on one wall and it’s a standard-size window. You probably will want to bring in artificial light.”

Don't get just any grow lights, though.

“Find those companies that make beautiful grow bulbs. Some have two-color tones, some (replicate) daylight and others make warmer lights” that make the space inviting but still help plants thrive, Carter said.

If relying on natural light, consider the seasons. “It may be brighter in the winter because all the leaves on the trees are gone, but in summer that’s a whole different situation.”

Assess your light and bring that information to a plant shop for guidance.

Bring in “some sort of accent chair facing whatever direction is going to provide you with joy: facing out the window, where the joy is having that sun caress your face, or facing in if you’re reading,” Carter said.

Select plants realistically.

“Be self-aware about your ability to care for plants,” Carter said. Your nook might start out looking lush and beautiful, but if you don't take the time to care for the plants, it will look terrible and uninviting within weeks.

When creating nature nooks for clients, Carter asks them about their favorite vacations or where they spent honeymoons or anniversaries, because bringing in plants from those places can trigger happy memories.

“Think about your happy place,” Carter advised. “Get a sense of what you want to replicate and where you want to be transported to."

A nature nook is an “escape from the chaos of the world,” he said.

When choosing plants, consider their foliage and how they look together. The glossiness of a burgundy Ficus elastica next to a Monstera ‘Thai Constellation,’ for instance, is striking, he says.

“But if you met your wife in the Pacific Northwest and you’re looking to create a look that’s similar to that, you’re going to get your more shaded plants -- ferns, Norfolk pines, things that refer back to that space,” he said.

And don’t overlook pots. A beautiful terracotta planter that fits the space’s vibe will evoke emotion and set the mood of the nook.

Consider how tall plants will grow, and how high the ceilings and windows are.

Carter also advises being mindful of the type of flooring. "Use planters that will protect the floor” in case water drains out.

Toxicity is another important matter. “Do you have pets? Do you have kids? What kinds of plants will thrive and keep them safe?” he said.

Once your nature nook is in place, create a routine. Maybe drink your morning coffee there or read there in the evenings. Using the space regularly can be transformative, Carter said.

“I’m much more patient, more kind, considerate and I’m a better listener because of plants,” he said. “I think I’m entirely a more loving individual than before.”

Jessica Damiano writes weekly gardening columns for the AP and publishes the award-winning Weekly Dirt Newsletter. You can sign up here for weekly gardening tips and advice.

For more AP gardening stories, go to https://apnews.com/hub/gardening.

Wall Street loses ground in mixed trading as gold and silver prices bounce back

NEW YORK (AP) — The U.S. stock market is losing ground amid mixed trading on Tuesday, while gold and silver bounce back from their latest sell-off.

The S&P 500 slipped 0.9% and fell further from its all-time high set last week, even though the majority of stocks within the index rose. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 189 points, or 0.4%, as of 12:20 p.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 1.6% lower.

Several influential Big Tech stocks weighed on the market, including drops of 3.3% for Nvidia and 2.9% for Microsoft. They helped drown out a 6.5% climb for Palantir Technologies, which reported bigger profit for the latest quarter than analysts expected. Its forecast for 61% growth in revenue this year also topped analysts’ expectations.

The action was stronger, again, in metals markets. Gold’s price climbed 6.8% to $4,970.40 per ounce in its latest swing since its jaw-dropping rally suddenly halted last week. Silver’s price, which has been whipping through even wilder moves, leaped 11.6%.

Gold and silver prices had been climbing for more than a year as investors looked for safer places to park their cash amid worries about everything from tariffs to a weaker U.S. dollar to heavy debt loads for governments worldwide. Their prices took off in particular last month, and gold’s price at one point had roughly doubled over 12 months.

But those rallies suddenly gave out last week, and gold’s price dropped from close to $5,600 to less than $4,500 on Monday. Silver plunged 31.4% on Friday alone.

Many traders say expectations that President Donald Trump’s nominee to lead the Federal Reserve will keep interest rates high to fight inflation were what turned the momentum initially, though some disagree. Most agree that simple gravity took over afterward.

After gold and silver prices had shot up so much, so quickly, they were bound to fall back at some point, particularly with so many investors piling in to use gold as a way to bet on continued weakness for the U.S. dollar.

“The move underscored how stretched anti-USD positioning had become,” according to volatility strategists at Barclays.

On Wall Street, PayPal dropped 19.7% after reporting weaker results for the latest quarter than analysts expected. It also named a new CEO after it said “the pace of change and execution” over the last two years “was not in line” with the board of directors’ expectations.

Pfizer fell 3.5% even though it reported stronger profit for the latest quarter than analysts expected. The pharmaceutical company gave a forecasted range for profit in 2026 whose midpoint was below analysts’ expectations.

The Walt Disney Co. slipped 0.6% after it said Josh D’Amaro, head of the company’s parks business, will become its next CEO in March.

On the winning side of the market was PepsiCo, which rose 3.2% after the snack and beverage giant’s profit and revenue for the latest quarter nudged past analysts’ expectations. It also said it would cut prices this year on Lay’s, Doritos and other snacks to try and win back inflation-weary customers.

DaVita rallied 20.3% after the provider of dialysis and other health care services likewise delivered a better profit for the latest quarter than analysts expected.

In the bond market, the yield on the 10-year Treasury held at 4.29%, where it was late Monday.

In stock markets abroad, indexes bounced back in Asia from sharp losses the prior day.

South Korea’s Kospi surged 6.8% for its best day since the wild days of the COVID crash and recovery in early 2020. Just a day earlier, it had tumbled 5.3% from its record for its worst day in almost 10 months. The Kospi is home to many tech stocks, including Samsung Electronics, which surged 11.4%.

Japan’s Nikkei 225 rallied 3.9%, while stocks rose 1.3% in Shanghai and 0.2% in Hong Kong.

Indexes were mixed in Europe.

AP Business Writers Yuri Kageyama and Matt Ott contributed.