[1] He was educated at Curtis High School,[2] briefly studied architecture at Wagner College and Cooper Union, after which he worked as an interior decorator for department stores while taking classes in design at Pratt Institute, Columbia University, and, in the summer of 1961, at the Parsons School of Design in Europe.
[3] Buatta worked for Elisabeth C. Draper and then for Keith Irvine, and started his own business in 1963.
[1][2] In 1988, he and Mark Hampton oversaw the interior redecoration of Blair House in Washington, D.C.[1][2][3] His most extensive work was Carolands, a 92-room chateau located in Hillsborough, California.
[3] He was a mainstay of the Kips Bay Decorator Showhouse and from 1977 to 1991 chaired The Winter Show, greatly increasing its prominence as an antiques and design venue.
[1][3] Buatta lived in a townhouse in Manhattan,[3] and also owned the 1845 William H. Mason house in Thompson Hill, Connecticut.