Go to Chrome Preferences. The page should open with Settings at the top. Go to the second section "On startup". Click on "Open a specific page or set of pages". Now click on "Set pages". A new window opens. Now you can set your startup page by entering the URL. Mine is set for Duckduckgo and when I start Chrome it defaults to the Duckduckgo home page with the search bar.
I can't help you with getting icons on the startrup page. If I'm in Chrome and I click on File - New window, I get a page with icons but they all seem to be Chrome or Google thingies - is that the page you meant?