To skim coat or not?

I am having two light fixtures installed in my living room and one in my bedroom. The skim coating is putting me significantly over my renovation budget. My contractor said that I could skip the skim coating and it would look “ok, but not perfect” in the spaces where the wall was broken into. I’m having trouble deciding whether to spend the money to skim coat because I don’t know what the difference would look like. Any thoughts would be appreciated.

By cortnyc |