I'm not sure how to do this using K2. I want to be able to have differently designed areas on the home page - like alternating colored or textured rows with content in each, maybe even a paralax row, but I have no idea how you would put content into these different areas using k2 - I would almost think that I'd need to be able to put different categories on the same page - is that doable?

Thank you!

I think the easiest way to achieve this would be to use multiple instances (and sub-templates) of the K2 content module instead of using the component view.

Can you suggest a place to start? I have used K2 on a purchased template before, but haven't used it a lot in my own designs.

By reading the documentation on overrides getk2.org/documentation/tutorials/174-templating-with-k2-and-the-concepts-of-sub-templates
and this blog post
www.joomlaworks.net/blog/item/194-k2-inheritance-sub-templating