To be honest, the minimum you really need for a colourful website is just HTML and a dash of inline CSS, especially if you want to recreate that nostalgic early internet type of feeling. JavaScript is very much optional.

In my opinion you should start easy, understand how it all clicks together, especially HTML and then start building, and eventually rebuilding, on top of it after you have grasped the basics. Most people gets scared by HTML, CSS and JavaScript because they are usually presented together as if you couldn’t use one without the others, but you most certainly can.

Just my 2 cents.