Earlier on in my career, I commissioned a sectional from a very reputable and excellent custom furniture maker—someone I had worked with for a while and whom I knew would do a beautiful job. My client was trying to get the living room ready for holiday entertaining. About three or four weeks before the party, my client sat on the sofa and noticed that it felt like the cushion inside had started to shrink. The foam inside the seat cushion seemed to begin to crumble.