“I never thought I’d end up working with my father,” Chris Vila, 31, says. “But what can I say—the man has a lot of wisdom.” Though Vila was born and raised in Boston, the whole family now resides in Manhattan, where Chris and Bob keep busy designing a line of power, hand, lawn and garden tools and expanding their already impressive one-stop DIY home-renovating website, bobvila.com.

“There have been times when I’m wrestling with a sink or the like, and think how much easier it would be to just call in a plumber,” he explains. “But the satisfaction of doing something with your hands, and doing something well, is empowering.” Vila’s Union Square apartment, which he shares with his accessories-sales director wife, Kristen Schonwald, is an ode to such empowerment, as Vila renovated the entire space himself, adding clever touches like a built-in stone desk in one corner, and a chef’s-quality kitchen in another. “The bookshelves in the bedroom were actually Kristen’s vision,” he says. “I just executed it.” Below, learn how to install archival-quality shelving—in under four hours—without paying for a pro.

Check out page 2 for step-by-step instructions on building a custom shelf.