One door two color schemes

My brother and I are remodeling our parents' house and we're running into some issues we're not sure how to address. One of these is that we'd like to turn the common areas into a light color. The wallpaper was light but removed years ago and the walls not touched.

The house was built in the 70s and had dark trim everywhere. It all matched doorframes, baseboard, doors, etc. We're pretty much set on white and intend on replacing most of the trim and baseboards to get rid of the dings and scratches that happened over the decades.

The problem really is that we don't really intend on doing this to every room, just the common areas: hall, bathroom, living, kitchen. So the bedrooms would retain the dark stain.

Can it work? Just be selective which sides the door and frame are painted. I don't think I've seen it in life and maybe I'm not an articulate Googler but haven't seen it online either.

 

I've painted quite a few houses over the yrs where 1 room would be stained and the adjoining room would be painted. Since the existing trim has a poly/varnish finish on it you'll need to sand it lightly and apply a solvent based primer. Once dry sand lightly and apply 2 coats of your choice of enamel; oil base, latex or waterborne. Generally oil base enamel isn't a great choice as they will yellow over time.

You stop the paint at the door stop so when the door is shut 1 side looks completely painted and the other completely stained. If the door opens into the room you paint the toe edge [where the latch is] if it opens away from the room you'd paint the heel [where the hinges are]