A Professional Collector Turns a Petite Buckhead Carriage House into His Personal Treasure Trove

Interiors Market owner Milton Roberts fills a petite Buckhead carriage house with his signature brand of pizzazz

Guests are greeted by Roberts’ flair for playful juxtapositions. Religious artwork overlooks the entry hall where a military jacket is slung on a chair, and a greyhound dog statue keeps watch.

In the salon, a playful image of a hot pink Tootsie Pop, as depicted by the multidisciplinary artist Mark Jackson, gives new meaning to “pop art.”

Interiors Market owner Milton Roberts made a friend’s carriage house his home, complete with a rich assemblage of art, curiosities, and found objects collected over decades.

In the bedroom, Roberts proves that an eclectic style need not be dizzying. A subtle mix of patterns, calming blues, and period pieces, all anchored by an iron four-poster bed, offers a restful respite.

In the bedroom, Roberts proves that an eclectic style need not be dizzying. A subtle mix of patterns, calming blues, and period pieces, all anchored by an iron four-poster bed, offers a restful respite.

To maximize the apartment’s two-bedroom, one-bath layout for his collecting lifestyle, Roberts converted one of the bedrooms into a spacious closet.

With ample storage space being a must for Roberts’ residence, the loft of the carriage house serves as a holding pen for more gems, including his beloved cutout of a cowboy riding a bucking bronco.

By day, Milton Roberts can typically be found shepherding designers and collectors through Interiors Market, the showroom he owns in The Shops of Miami Circle. With 14,000 square feet of modern, vintage, and antique furnishings, walking the floor and properly viewing all the inventory can easily fill an entire afternoon.

After business hours, however, he retreats to a cozier space: a 1,000-square-foot carriage house on a dear friend’s historic Buckhead estate. Nearly every inch is well-appointed with Roberts’ cherished treasures accumulated during his two-plus decades in the industry. “I’m definitely eclectic, for sure,” he says of his personal style. “I also feel like I’ve got a classic-contemporary vibe.”

A royal-blue military jacket adorns the back of a chair. A slice of vibrant graffiti hangs in a thick, gilded frame. A painting of a hot pink Tootsie Pop floats above a sleek, wooden secretary. “My collections are what make it home for me,” he says. “They’re always evolving and I’m always cycling things. I may buy something and bring it home, love on it a little bit, then take it in and sell it.”

Among his troves, however, are also the “forever things” he won’t part with, like the painted cutout of a cowboy on a bucking bronco that lives in the loft. “I like the playfulness,” shares Roberts, adding that he enjoys juxtaposing pop art with antiquity. “Fun things like that make serious antiques not seem so old lady.” The unexpected pairings continue in the salon where, thanks to a double-height ceiling, a 10-foot-tall Jonah and the whale depicted in black and white by Atlanta-based artist Ben Smith holds court over Roberts’ otherwise Technicolor world. “Big scale can still work in a small space if you do it right,” he advises.

Below the majestic mammoth, a bar cart—well-stocked with rocks glasses, vodka, and coffee liqueur—invites the busy business owner to slow down at the end of the workday. “My favorite drink is a White Russian,” he says. It’s a fitting choice. Just like Roberts’ layered approach to curating his abode, this free-spirited cocktail can be easily adjusted to taste and poured without measuring, yet still consistently yields a delicious result. interiorsmarket.com