Decoration taking Malcolm about half an hour (5)
I believe the answer is:
mural
'decoration' is the definition.
The definition and answer can be both man-made objects as well as being singular nouns.
Maybe there's an association between them I don't understand?
'malcolm about half an hour' is the wordplay.
'malcolm' becomes 'mal' (I can't explain this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'about' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'half an' means to take half the letters.
'hour' cut in half is 'ur'.
'mal' going around 'ur' is 'MURAL'.
'taking' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for mural that I've seen before include "Wall art" , "Wall design" , "Wall-painting" , "Wall decoration" , "Large wall painting" .)