Using custom page for my homepage

As the title states, I am using a custom page for my homepage, as opposed to using the default layout, I have messed around with the css for awhile, but now I want to add a sidebar, which I have done in the Theme Setup -> Page Setup -> Homepage and then added a sidebar to the left side of the page, (making sure I have chose the left sidebar in the Homepage Setup) followed by adding a widget to that sidebar, but it does NOT show if I use a custom page for my layout, if I chose use default layout from the Design Setup it will show the widget in the sidebar.

How do I fix that so I can use sidebars / widgets in my custom homepage?

Thank you
Brian