I just finished sanding the floors at our new house, and we've decided we want a very light wood. Our current house we are selling has white floors, so we understand the cons of having light floors. That being said, do any of you have recommendations on how to finish these? The raw wood looks just how we want color wise, but obviously there's no protection. I've had luck on woodworking projects using Minwax paste wax, but obviously that isn't durable enough for floors. My thought was to use Varathane's water based polyurethane. Given it's water based I was hoping for minimal color change, but even that looks pretty yellow after drying (top sampled section in image). Is there something that can keep these floors basically exactly how they look now? Perhaps a bleach, or dye of some sort that will lock in the color before adding a sealer?
Something like this is what we are after. A modern, raw, sort of look.
Thanks!