Place inside popular painted flats? (5)
I believe the answer is:
inset
'popular painted flats?' is the definition.
The answer and definition can be both man-made objects as well as being singular nouns.
Perhaps you can see an association between them that I can't see?
'place inside' is the wordplay.
I cannot really see how this works, but
'place' could be 'set' (synonyms) and 'set' is found in the answer.
'inside' could be 'in' and 'in' is found in the answer.
No letters remain.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for inset that I've seen before include "Put (one thing) into (another)" , "Part of magazine" , "It could be stuck between pages" , "Gore" , "Picture placed within another" .)