Everyone knows you can't run a space station without them.
Good boxes for control panels: cracker, tissue, pasta, tea, cereal. Good plastic bottle lids for knobs: dishwashing liquid, squeeze-style mustard or relish, water or sports drink, glue.

Use scissors to remove the back of a small box, as shown. Cover it with aluminum foil.
Use pipe cleaners to attach bottle-top knobs. We stacked several boxes and used a pasta box with a window plus colored tape to make a nifty door.