Since Fred and Wilma Flintstone gathered over dinosaur steak in Bedrock, the kitchen has lured contemporary cave dwellers as a place of sustenance and comfort. However, this epicenter of meal-taking, decision-making, mediating and entertaining often includes an office-like space — a place to pay the bills, catch up on e-mail, file papers and help the kids with homework.

With an office at Command Central, you can break new ground with multitasking. Where else can you schedule appointments, call up recipes, plan meals, maintain a chore list, pay bills, schmooze electronically and stir the stew, all at the same time?

The home office really took off, especially in new construction, in the late 1990s, according to Edsel Charles, president of MarketGraphics National. His market research firm has nine of the nation's top 10 builders as clients. He says 15 percent of all new homes nationwide now have home offices — up from just 3 percent in the early 1990s.

He says what started as a work space in the kitchen evolved into a separate room within the house and more recently into a separate-entry space.

Yet the rise of the home office hasn't displaced the kitchen work space. In new high-rise and condominium developments, this space may be taking on more importance.

Melissa Smith, a certified kitchen designer with Hermitage Kitchen Design Gallery in Nashville, Tenn., says the trend in new homes is toward "a space for taking messages and making lists" and occasionally using a laptop, rather than a full-fledged kitchen office with a desk and file cabinets.

"A place for records, schedules and such is going out of the kitchen," she says.

In larger homes, clients prefer office-type space in a separate area. "That's because (in the kitchen) it became a space for clutter." The compromise, Smith says, is "a raised area next to the refrigerator, about 42 inches high and 3 feet wide."

Of Smith's clients who still want a complete kitchen office, some opt to put a desk behind doors, "tall retractable doors that open and close all the way," Smith says. "People want to simplify their lives and eliminate clutter."

For those who are downsizing, trading large homes for apartments or condos, hiding a desk behind closed doors is not an option. However, they still want the space. Condo developers are paying attention.

Beth Vincent, a real-estate agent, says many still seek a place in the kitchen for taking care of business. People are "surprised to find a little office in the kitchen area," she says.

Vincent says the kitchen work space has the same 1 1/2-inch granite as the countertops, and high-speed Internet access. The functional cabinetry above has "nooks and crannies for papers and supplies."

"People love it," Vincent says. "It's especially appealing to people who are giving up home offices."