Strings or panels of addressible LEDs would be a good place to start. Adafruit brands these as "neopixels" but the specific LED most of them use is a "WS2812",

Strings or panels of addressible LEDs would be a good place to start. Adafruit brands these as "neopixels" but the specific LED most of them use is a "WS2812", "WS2812B", or "WS2813". With these you have a single data line from a microcontroller to control the LEDs, and there are libraries to help you do that. I've lit some up and fiddled with them and they're pretty cool, but I haven't come up with anything more serious to use them on yet. RGB lights on stuff for the sake of it isn't my aesthetic. But maybe a clock and weather forecast station with animated rain effects or something. Lots of info here: https://learn.adafruit.com/adafruit-neopixel-uberguide https://learn.adafruit.com/adafruit-neopixel-uberguide https://www.learnrobotics.org/blog/neopixel-projects-ridiculously-cool/ https://www.learnrobotics.org/blog/neopixel-projects-ridicul...