The floors in my home are natural ash, no stain. As you can see in the picture below they are very light. We had them sanded and refinished 3 years ago when we did our kitchen but we have lived with them for 12 years total and they have never yellowed. Here is a shot of them.

You could also check out natural maple. We had that in a previous home and my DD has them in her home. They are also quite light. No yellowness on hers or ours. Sorry I do not have a picture of those floors.

In our first home, we uncovered 60 year old oak floors. We refinished them ourselves and added a cherry stain and in the 3+ years we lived there, they never yellowed.

In my experience, yellowing is not because of the wood but because of the finish that is applied reacting with sunlight.

I would look at oak or ash as both are very hard and naturally light.

I will have to look at natural ash! I didn't know it was used for floors.

OT: f natural ash is hard enough for floors, will it work for a counter top:

Technicolor- ash is comparable to oak so I would think you could use it for a countertop.

My custom cabs are made out of ash.

Maple is naturally light in color and is harder than oak or ash. Bamboo is harder than maple and light in color too.

We were warned that maple would yellow, and indeed I have a maple side table that has yellowed a lot over the years.

What you want is a laminate floor.

Have you considered bamboo? We put bamboo in our family room and kitchen in our previous home and loved it. Light color (all dark cabinets in that house) - very warm on bare feet.

Our current place has real oak floors (3/4"). They were super-dark when we moved in. We ended up refinishing them in a medium stain (4 parts coffee, part rosewood). The kitchen has shiny white uppers and greige laminate lower cabinets. We do get a lot of sun, though.

Anyway, I'd recommend light bamboo. Loved them.

OT to technicolor - I wouldn't personally use ash or red oaks for a countertop since they are open pored woods. They'd need a lot of finish to fill the pores well enough to clean up well in a kitchen. White oak might be a better choice.

Jillius - Look at maple with a tung oil finish. I am not sure how tung oil is on a floor as far as wear, but it is a wonderful finish that has little or no yellowing. We use it as a wood finish on bowls and furniture, and it adds almost no color, but it is a small molecule that sinks well into the wood to bring out the grain. It is also relatively forgiving in that if you have to refinish an area it is easy to blend the new with the old. I imagine that you would have to get the floor unfinished and have it finished for you since I doubt it would come prefinished with tung oil.

Also white oak with a water based finish.

It's also possible to use a white or light grey or light brown tinged finish. This might appear darker in the store, but it should look plenty light next to your cabinets but still leave some wiggle room to add something like stools in an even lighter tone.

Here is a link that might be useful: Just the picture for color.

Not the best picture, but have you seen tigerwood? Ours is red. The hardwood store also had another kind that was a different shade, lighter I think. I love the variations although I know they're not for everyone.

Here's a better picture that shows all the variation.