Personally, I'm all for the latter.
I can put up 'free standing' stuff that you would buy from IKEA but I'm not one putting up shelves, giant bedroom units that attach to the wall and well, anything that involves a drill!
It's because of this that we tend to (well always!) pay a Joiner to do a fair bit of work for us.
I don't know what it is with me really as if I just learned to do the stuff I could save a fortune but I'm just too worried about damaging the house and making things worse!!
Even decorating like painting a room I will get someone in to do it as I will tend to make a right botch job of it the walls!!
Maybe there should be some kind of 'homeowner' course you need to go on before you buy a house so you can at least do the basics!!