If you’ve been waiting for wall paints that offer radiant, harmonizing colors, incredible coverage, low odor and fast drying time, you’re going to love Benjamin Moore’s newest interior paints. With 144 stylish, beautifully coordinating colors, this new line of paints, called Aura, is out to make a big splash. 

Aura covers most surfaces in a single coat. In fact, two-coat coverage is guaranteed. That saves time, especially if you’re working with reds, which are notorious for requiring multiple coats.

 A new primer-like product Benjamin Moore calls Color Foundation is available for the 70 or 80 colors for which you might need a bit of help with coverage. And even if your walls need that second coat, one-hour drying time means you can get the color on the wall faster.

 Although you may notice a slight odor when you first open the can, “it dries so quickly, the odor is gone by the time it’s on the wall,” says Stacy White, a Benjamin Moore architectural color representative. “When you’re painting, you don’t actually smell it.”

 Other advantages include extreme washability, even in a matte finish. There’s no rub-off, and the Aura paints allow invisible touch- ups with no brush or roller marks.

 All 3,300 of Benjamin Moore’s current colors are available in the Aura formulation, but what consumers may appreciate most about Aura’s Affinity Color Collection is the ability to match any color with any other color in the fan deck.

 Newton-based designer Kris Shaffer of Inside Art Custom Interiors believes these new hues will provide better decorating results. “These colors are very comfortable together,” she says. “Most of the paint that is available to consumers has a palette that is too expansive, too light and too bright. Those don’t make beautiful rooms. But with the Affinity colors, Benjamin Moore has come up with a palette of colors that will be much more successful.”

 The Aura paints are green in other ways, as well. Their low volatile organic compound (VOC) formulation ensures that they are kinder to the environment.

 What’s the downside? Aura costs more — $54.95 a gallon, as opposed to the $35 or so you may be paying for paint now.

 To find a Benjamin Moore dealer near you that carries the Aura paints, go to their Web site, www.myaurapaint.com and type in your zip code.

Cindy Bailen is an architectural color consultant with her company Oranges&lemons Colors, on the Web at www.orangesandlemonscolors.com. Contact her at cbailen@comcast.net.