I’m about to do this on a Genesis child theme. I really tried picking a theme my client liked, but out of the blue with the project nearly finished they sprung their own artwork on me and want it for the homepage. So I had the site nearly up, and she sent me her own artwork that she wants to be the homepage. It’s a full page and would have a different background than the rest of the site, no sidebars or widgeted areas, just three buttons.
Here is the solution I’ve found for this.
How to integrate a custom landing page on wordpress?
Will I need to add this solution back in with every upgrade?
No, you will not. Custom page templates is standard WP functionality. You should only set appropriate template for the home page.